Some scenes from Lady Frederick (a comedy in three acts), written by William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965), and produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1907.

   Some scenes from Lady Frederick (a comedy in three acts), written by the English playwright William Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965), and produced at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 1907.

   His next big commercial and critical success did not come until October 1907, when his comedy Lady Frederick opened at the Court Theatre in London. He had written it four years earlier, but numerous managements turned it down until Otho Stuart accepted it and cast the popular Ethel Irving in the title role. It ran for 422 performances at five different West End theatres. 
   Lady Frederick is a comedy by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, written early in his career. The play was first seen in London in 1907, and was very successful, running for 422 performances. The title role was played by Ethel Irving. In New York it was first performed in 1908, with Lady Frederick played by Ethel Barrymore, who reprised her role in the play's film adaptation, The Divorcee. In the play, Lady Frederick is an Irish widow, seriously in debt; she must deal with suitors who have various motives for proposing marriage, and with the man with whom she once had an affair. 

Lady Frederick, 1907

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, November 9th, 1907, "Lady Frederick," by W. Somerset Maugham, at the Royal Court Theatre.

   1- Lady Frederick (Miss Ethel Irving), in financial difficulties, completes the conquest of a dunning dressmaker (Miss Florence Wood) by asking her to dine with a prince.

   2- The moneylender, Captain Montgomery (Mr. Holmes-Gore), having bought up Lady Frederick's promissory notes, threatens to ruin her unless she marries him, and so gets his vulgar person into titled society.

   3- The final scene.- Paradine Fouldes, who had commenced by being Lady Frederick's enemy, now pays off her money-lending and threatening suitor, saying, "A millionaire in want of ready money is always an affecting sight," and soon after is himself accepted by the lady.  The Admiral in the picture has also just proposed for the lady's hand.  Lady Frederick (Miss Irving), Mr. Paradine Fouldes (Mr. C.M. Lowne), Capt. Montgomery (W. Holmes-Gore), Admiral Carlisle (Mr. E. W. Garden), Sir Gerald O.Mara (Mr. Edmund Breon), and Rose (Miss Beatrice Terry).

   4- Lady Frederick's youngest suitor, Lady Meriston (Mr. W. Graham Browne), and Lady Frederick, after her ladyship has cured the youth's passion by "making up" her hair and face before him.

   5- Lady Mereston (Miss Beryl Faber) as an unimpeachable matron and an uncompromising enemy of the suspected "merry widow," Lady Frederick.

   6- Paradine Fouldes, who long ago nearly eloped with Lady Frederick, is now accepted as her future husband,  her other suitors,  too old, too young, or too vulgar,  having all been dismissed.

Shakespeare's ghost broods about Maugham's domination of the London stage (Punch, 1908)